Cabinet replacement & refacing
Refacing keeps your existing cabinet boxes and gives them new doors, drawer fronts, and matching veneer; replacement removes the boxes and installs new ones. Grandview Contractors does both inside a kitchen remodel across Utah County and Salt Lake County under a Utah DOPL B100 license, and we’ll tell you at the walk-through which one your kitchen needs.
Replace or reface: which one is your kitchen asking for?
The question is about the boxes, not the doors. Open a lower cabinet, press on its floor, and look at the back corner under the sink. Square, dry boxes still screwed tight to the wall are refacing candidates. Particleboard swelled at the toe kick, a soft sink-base floor, or face frames pulling away from the wall mean the boxes are done, and refacing them would be a new coat on a tired frame.
Layout settles the rest. Refacing locks you into the footprint you have: the same runs, the same 24-inch lowers, the same corner. If the real complaint is storage or flow, you’re in small-kitchen remodel territory. If the complaint is only the look and the counters are staying, refacing is often the honest answer. Many 1990s and early-2000s homes in Lehi, Draper, and Saratoga Springs fit that profile: solid oak boxes in a layout that works, wearing a finish gone orange. A third path for sound boxes with sound doors is cabinet painting, which costs less than refacing but can’t change a door profile.
What refacing involves
Refacing is more than new doors. Exposed face frames and end panels get stripped, sanded, and skinned with matching veneer or rigid thermofoil, trimmed flush. New doors and drawer fronts come from the same manufacturer line so grain, stain, and sheen match the veneer. We fit new soft-close hinges and drawer slides at the same time, because old slides under new fronts is the detail that gives a reface away. Drawer boxes can stay or be swapped for dovetailed plywood.
Two Utah realities shape the material choice. Elevation and sun intensity fade finishes fast on south- and west-facing kitchens, so we steer clients toward UV-stable finishes and away from dark stains beside a window. And Utah’s dry air moves solid wood: a door shipped from a humid shop shrinks across its width here, so we favor engineered-core doors for painted work and let solid doors acclimate on site before hanging.
What full replacement involves
Replacement starts with demolition of the old boxes, which almost always takes the countertop with it: a counter glued to old cabinets rarely survives removal, so plan on countertop replacement in the scope, and usually a new backsplash once counter height or depth changes. With the boxes out, we check walls for plumb and floors for level, which in older Provo and Salt Lake homes can be off by half an inch over a run, and set a ledger so the uppers hang straight.
Uppers are fastened through the hanging rail into studs with structural screws, never into drywall alone. Along the Wasatch Front, where a loaded upper run can weigh several hundred pounds, that’s the difference between cabinets that stay put in an earthquake and cabinets that don’t. Box construction is a real spec: cabinet boxes sold in the US must meet the EPA’s TSCA Title VI formaldehyde standard, and plywood boxes hold screws and resist sink-base moisture better than particleboard at a modest premium.
How cabinet work fits around the rest of the kitchen
- Walk-through and box inspection. We open every base, check floors and wall attachment, and give you a budget range for both paths.
- Selections and order. Door style, finish, hardware, and (for replacement) layout get fixed. Refacing components ship in 3 to 6 weeks; semi-custom boxes run 6 to 12.
- Protect and remove. Refacing: doors off, kitchen stays usable. Replacement: boxes and counters out, temporary kitchen set up first.
- Install and align. Veneer and fronts on, or boxes leveled, hung, and joined, with door reveals set consistent across the run.
- Counters, backsplash, trim. On a replacement, counters are templated only after boxes are set; the backsplash follows the counter.
What does cabinet replacement or refacing cost in Utah?
As ballpark planning numbers, not quotes: refacing an average Utah County kitchen with new doors, fronts, veneer, and hardware typically lands between roughly $9,000 and $20,000. Full replacement runs about $12,000 to $25,000 with stock cabinets, $20,000 to $45,000 semi-custom, and upward of $40,000 for custom, before counters. Compare the two paths on the whole kitchen, not the cabinet line alone.
What moves the number: linear feet of run, door material (thermofoil and painted MDF low, solid wood and specialty veneers high), drawer-box replacement, pull-outs, and on replacements, how far the walls and floor are out of true. You’ll get a budget range at the walk-through, an estimate once selections are made, and a fixed proposal before demolition.
Questions we actually get
Can you reface cabinets and keep the existing countertop?
Usually, yes. Refacing leaves the boxes in place, so the counter never moves. The exception is a laminate counter whose integral backsplash overlaps the end panels and needs trimming. If the counter is leaving anyway, replacement often makes more sense than refacing.
How long does each option take?
Refacing is typically 3 to 5 working days on site after a 3 to 6 week lead time, and you keep using the kitchen. Replacement is 1 to 2 weeks for demolition and install, then one to two weeks for counter fabrication, after a 6 to 12 week cabinet lead time.
Can we change a few cabinets while refacing the rest?
Yes, within limits. Adding a pantry cabinet, swapping a base for a drawer stack, or replacing a damaged sink base works alongside refacing; the new boxes get the same fronts and veneer. Past roughly a third of the boxes, replacement is usually cheaper and cleaner.
Does cabinet replacement need a permit?
Not on its own. Swapping cabinets and counters in place is cosmetic work. A permit comes into play if the project also moves plumbing, adds circuits, or relocates the range; we confirm specifics with your city’s building department when the scope crosses that line.
For cabinets outside the kitchen, see cabinet refacing in our cabinetry section, or browse the renovation and build-out hub.
Tell us what you’re working on
We reply within a couple of hours during business hours — a day at most. You’ll get a straight read on scope, sequence, and budget before anyone commits to anything.